Earnings and the decision to return to school

This paper finds that a significant predictor of returning to school is earnings below expected earnings in the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) Young Men sample. These 'unlucky' workers find that the foregone cost of schooling was lower than they thought. At the same time, the low relative earnings of these ‘unlucky’ workers may cause them also to revise their expected value of further schooling. But because they do actually decide to return to school, two interpretations of this revision in the value in further schooling are possible. Either the revision is upward, indicating that they believe that additional schooling will bring earnings up to that expected for persons with further education; or the revision is downward, but that revision must be dominated by a greater reduction in the expected cost of schooling for an economically sensible decision to return to school.     

新会计准则下上市公司盈余管理分析

盈余管理是企业管理人员在会计准则允许的范围之内,为了实现自身效用的最大化或企业价值的最大化而做出的会计选择。文章首先对盈余管理的涵义进行界定,然后分析其产生的原因和行为动机,最后结合我国新会计准则下上市企业盈余管理的手段,提出规范上市公司盈余管理的建议。     

Does the choice of reference levels of education matter in the ORU earnings equation?

This paper examines whether the results of the earnings equation developed in the over-education/required education/under-education (ORU) literature are sensitive to whether the usual or reference levels of education are measured using the Realized Matches or Worker Self-Assessment methods. The analyses are conducted for all male native-born and immigrant workers in the US, by level of skill, and by occupation. While point estimates differ, particularly when earnings equations are estimated for the smaller samples of sub-groups of the workforce, the general findings are robust to this measurement issue. Thus, the answers provided to the typical research questions in the ORU literature on the productivity of schooling are independent of the measure of the usual or reference level of education used in the analyses.     

Quality of education and economic growth

This paper assesses the impact of school quality on student outcomes, particularly job performance, and subsequently on economic growth. It begins by showing that ‘investment in human capital’ has evolved from being viewed as simply an investment of student time to including interactions between time and monetary resources which may serve to improve school quality. Evidence is provided from studies of both elementary/secondary schooling and post-secondary education, and from studies of developed and less developed nations. It appears that school quality has substantially greater impact on changes in students' cognitive and behavioral outcomes in less developed than advanced countries. Yet school quality seems to effect lifetime earnings of all students regardless of the level of development of their nations. The paper explains why. in some cases, more years and money spent for schooling may not necessarily appear to reflect higher earnings. Explanations are provided for differences in the impact of school quality on student changes. A major one is the fact that there are significantly diminishing returns to expenditures on schooling, along with the fact that expenditure levels are so much lower in the poorer countries. Reasons are provided as to why, if institutional differences do not account for changes in students in wealthier nations, these differences should still account for differences in earnings. Factors such as measurement problems and institutional arrangements come into play in this regard. The paper concludes that improvement in the quality of schooling provided in developing countries may be more important tor the future economic prospects of these nations in the long run than will expanded access to poor quality education.     

'Interactive Whole Class Teaching' in the National Literacy Strategy

Building on evidence from an earlier small-scale study of the discourse of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) in England, the findings of a more extensive investigation (n=70) into interactive and discourse styles of a nationally representative sample of primary teachers are presented. Using a computerised observation schedule and discourse analysis system, the paper explores the impact of the official endorsement of 'interactive whole class teaching' in the teaching of the NLS to see whether it is promoting higher levels of interaction and cognitive engagement by pupils. The findings support our earlier study and suggest that the NLS is encouraging teachers to use more directive forms of teaching with little opportunities for pupils to explore and elaborate on their ideas. The implications of the findings are considered in the light of their impact on classroom pedagogy and the professional development of teachers who are charged with implementing the national policy-led initiatives like the NLS.     

Can You See the Difference? Early Impacts of the Primary National Literacy Strategy on Four Secondary English Departments

As schools adapt to the Key Stage 3 Literacy Strategy, this paper looks at early impacts upon secondary English departments of the primary National Literacy Strategy (NLS). Since 1999, pupils with increasing experience of the primary NLS have been entering secondary schools. This paper focuses upon four secondary English departments at three points in time: early in the first year in which secondary schools received Y7 students who had experienced the NLS (autumn 1999), towards the end of the same school year (July 2000) and five terms later (spring 2002). The paper looks for shifts over time in departmental policy and practice across the primary/secondary transfer that may relate to the impact of the primary NLS. Of the two major findings from rounds one and two of interviews, one was confirmed by the third round of interviews and one was not. The persistent finding was that greater success with post-NLS students in Y7 was experienced by the English department that already practised high levels of liaison with feeder primary schools and worked positively to publicise their literacy practices across their own school's other subject departments. However, over the three years, the four departments grew more varied in their preparation for, and responses to, receiving students from the primary NLS. This suggests that English departments are operating their responses to the primary NLS with a fair degree of autonomy.     

Social Justice and Juvenile Offenders: Examples of Fairness,Respect, and Access in Education Settings

Youths involved in juvenile justice face unique barriers to educational and mental health services. This qualitative study illustrates social justice violations that are particularly salient for this population. Youths on probation, their mothers, and juvenile probation staff participated in interviews as part of a multisite study conducted in Texas and California. Interviews were coded using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. This study provides detailed examples of social justice components of fairness, respect, and access within school and juvenile justice settings. Implications for how schools could address these types of situations to promote fairness and decrease discrimination and stigma for youths with a criminal record who are trying to succeed in school are also discussed.     

Lessons from the Nursery: Children as Writers in Early Years Education

This paper considers the rationale of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) for changing approaches to the teaching of writing in the early years. Existing pedagogy and practice are summarised and mapped against the NLS requirements. It is suggested that there are tensions both in ideology and practice which are particularly striking for the Reception year. Research in early years classrooms in three primary schools in Southern England draws attention, in particular, to the ways in which the NLS is prompting changes in contexts for writing and in the nature of teacher intervention, with an increasingly early emphasis on the didactic teaching of writing conventions. The paper concludes that developmentally appropriate, affirming strategies need not contravene the educational ideals of the NLS, providing the professionalism of early years practitioners is genuinely nurtured and respected.     

Becoming a literacy teacher: approximations in critical literacy teaching

The new literacy studies (NLS) is a tradition of research that includes ethnographic work on literacy that has many applications for classroom teachers. The NLS include explorations of local literacies and critical literacy as well as the notion of literacy itself. When teachers draw on the NLS, students are able to draw on their practices in critical and transformative ways. However, NLS perspectives have not been used to examine how teachers are prepared in pre‐service programs and the ways critical literacy practices develop. This paper examines how two pre‐service teachers learn to take up definitions of local literacies in their work with students from racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse backgrounds in practicum settings. They use approximations in literacy teaching to design practices with students, demonstrating the process of becoming a teacher of literacy. I conclude with recommendations for teacher educators who are interested in supporting such approximations.     

Long overdue? Another look at the National Literacy Strategy

This paper discusses the teaching approaches which English primary schools are encouraged to use as part of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and the ways in which the case for their increased use is supported by research and inspection evidence. This evidence suggests that, in the years immediately before the NLS was implemented, early reading in English primary schools was largely taught by individualised methods. The skills for dealing with information texts were taught rather patchily. Links between reading and writing were often not directly made. The paper argues that the reasons for this individualised pedagogy can be traced back to the influence of the Plowden Report of 1967. The limitations of individualised teaching with whole classes have subsequently been highlighted by school effectiveness research. The paper outlines the studies which have influenced the NLS in promoting greater direct interactive teaching of literacy and notes some critical issues which are still to be resolved.     

Philosophical perspectives on school effectiveness and school improvement

This article discusses critically the implementation of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). The following issues are addressed: the importance of literacy in advanced societies; increasing public concern about literacy standards in English and Welsh primary schools; the perceived need for a large-scale intervention into the teaching of literacy from the standpoint of international comparisons and school inspection evidence. The literacy process, its complexities and controversies, are considered and critiqued, along with the extent to which the NLS is able to accommodate the implications of research findings. In conclusion, the evaluation reports on the impact of the NLS are discussed.     

A Family of Exact Solutions fort the Nonlinear Schrodinger Equation

In this paper,the nonlinear Schrodinger(NLS)equation was analytically solved.Firstly,the stationary solutions of NLS equation were explicitly given by the elliptic functions.Then a family of exact solutions of NLS equation were botained from these stationary solutions by a method for finding new exact solutions from the stationary solutions of integrable evolution equations.     

Pedagogical Dilemmas in the National Literacy Strategy: Primary teachers' perceptions,reflections and classroom behaviour

This paper argues that the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) offers contradictory pedagogical advice to teachers on 'interactive teaching'. It reports research on teachers' perceptions of and responses to this advice and focuses particularly on NLS demands for teaching which is 'well paced with a sense of urgency'. Evidence from case studies and systematic observations of classroom interaction is used to show that whilst teachers vary in their sensitivity to the dilemmas posed by NLS demands, their classroom discourse in the Literacy Hour is quantitatively and qualitatively different from pre-NLS discourse. It is suggested that opportunities for critical reflection on practice are needed to help teachers articulate and resolve the dilemmas created by the imposition of prescribed programmes on personal educational principles.     

Does the Model of Language in the National Literacy Strategy Create Failure for Pupils from Differing Language Backgrounds?

The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was introduced by the government in the wake of the hotly debated issue of falling educational standards in the UK. All schools were required to adopt the NLS Literacy Hour unless they could show their preferred programme would result in raised levels of achievement. My experience of delivering the Literacy Hour has been a process of adaptation to the needs of my pupils, who are drawn mainly from groups whose language backgrounds differ from that which is dominant in school. I have found that the requirements of NLS, together with many of the commercial resources used to teach it, are not appropriate for pupils from these groups and a question arose: is it the pupils who are in some way deficient or is it the approach and the resources being used? This article takes a case study of the use of a commercially produced resource to explore the model of language implicit in NLS, the kinds of resources it generates and the ways in which this creates failure in pupils from different language backgrounds. It then considers the New Literacy Studies and their implications for an alteration in our approach.     

Changing practice: The National Literacy Strategy and the politics of literacy policy

Drawing on a recent ESRC‐funded research project, 1 this paper will explore some of the contradictory structural features of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), which have helped shape its evolution over time, and reflect on some of the tension points which have arisen at different levels of implementation as the Strategy unfolds. In the process, the paper will consider NLS not so much as a neutral means of transferring ‘what works’ from one site to another, but rather as itself constituting a new social context in which literacy teaching and learning take place. It will pay particular attention to the new pace of teaching that NLS has ushered in and the way in which this is driven by the kind of planning regime that NLS introduced.     

Teaching of Word Level Work in the Literacy Hour and Its Implications for Educational Psychologists' Assessment and Intervention

This paper describes initial research into the teaching of literacy in Bedfordshire by the Educational Psychology Service. The majority of lower schools in the authority follow the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and teach the Literacy Hour daily. Five of these hours were observed in seven Year 1 classes across the country. Particular attention was given to the teaching of word level work, as this has been found to be most influential in learning to read. Instances of word level work were timed and categorised in terms of the approach used. The results demonstrated a large amount of variation in the delivery of the NLS in these schools, particularly in time spent on word level work. Most schools favoured onset-rime as an approach to teaching word level work, which reflects the emphasis of the NLS. These findings are related to recent and ongoing research into the most effective ways of teaching word level work.     

The value of using early-career earnings data in the College Scorecard to guide college choices

Policymakers are increasingly including early-career earnings data in consumer-facing college search tools to help students and families make more informed postsecondary education decisions. We offer new evidence on the degree to which existing college-specific earnings data equip consumers with useful information by documenting the level of selection bias in the earnings metrics reported in the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard. Given growing interest in reporting earnings by college and major, we focus on the degree to which earnings differences across four-year colleges and universities can be explained by differences in major composition across institutions. We estimate that more than 70% of the variation in median earnings across institutions is explained by observable factors, and accounting for differences in major composition explains 20–30% of the variation in earnings over and above institutional selectivity and student composition. We also identify large variations in the distribution of earnings within colleges; as a result, comparisons of early-career earnings can be extremely sensitive to whether the median, 25th, or 75th percentiles are presented. Taken together, our findings indicate that consumers can easily draw misleading conclusions about institutional quality when using publicly available earnings data to compare institutions.     

How do young people choose college majors?

Previous studies on the determinants of the choice of college major have assumed a constant probability of success across majors or a constant earnings stream across majors. Our model disregards these two restrictive assumptions in computing an idiosyncratic expected earnings variable to explain the probability that a student will choose a specific major among four choices of concentrations. The construction of an expected earnings variable requires information on the student's perceived probability of success, the predicted earnings of graduates in all majors and the student's expected earnings if he (she) fails to complete a college program. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we evaluate the chances of success in all majors for all the individuals in the sample. Second, the individuals' predicted earnings of graduates in all majors are obtained using Rumberger and Thomas's [Econ. Educ. Rev. 12 (1993) 1] regression estimates from a 1987 Survey of Recent College Graduates. Third, we obtain idiosyncratic estimates of earnings alternative of not attending college or by dropping out with a condition derived from our college major decision-making model applied to our sample of college students. Finally, with a mixed multinomial logit and probit models and an heteroscedastic extreme value model, we explain the individuals' choice of a major. The results of the paper show that the expected earnings variable is essential in the choice of a college major. There are, however, significant differences in the impact of expected earnings by gender and race.     

Evaluating and designing student loan systems: An overview of empirical approaches

To understand and design student loan systems, realistic earnings and/or income projections for current and future graduates are crucial. In this paper, Current Population Survey (CPS) data from the US is used to demonstrate empirical approaches that can be exploited to simulate lifetime income and earnings profiles for graduates which are needed to understand and design effective and sustainable student loan systems. The crucial element in getting this analysis correct is having reliable simulations of the whole distribution of future graduate earnings and income. Typically, in this literature, the repayment burdens (RBs) of student loans are calculated at different quantiles of the graduate income or earnings distribution. Often, unconditional quantile regression (UQR) is used to calculate age–earnings profiles for different quantiles of the income or earnings distribution. The paper shows that this approach has limitations when evaluating student loans and that simple raw quantile estimation by age with some age smoothing is preferable. This approach can also be used when income is censored and recorded in income bands as occurs with relevant data in some countries. The paper shows a simple way of incorporating dynamics utilizing these age–earnings profiles by quantile even when only very short panel data is available. This involves using copula functions. Having reliable dynamic estimates turns out to be important in assessing not only the taxpayer costs of designing an income-contingent loan (ICL) but also for correctly assessing the extent of loan repayment hardship for individuals.     

National news. Bangladesh. Mobilizing the youth through youth clubs. Population education for girls: PSTC experience

Involvement of Youths in Population and Family Welfare Activities through Youth Clubs, a project supported by the United Nations Population Fund, has developed innovative ways of reaching Bangladeshi youth with reproductive health messages. One such project, executed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports, provided training in family life education to 74 youth training centers and launched population activities through 200 youth clubs in 98 thanas. Benchmark surveys were conducted in priority areas identified by individual clubs. A primary health care intervention reached 23,000 women and children with health card and sanitation programs. Follow-up surveys have revealed significant improvements in youth's knowledge of health, nutrition, maternal-child health, sanitation, and environmental conservation. In another Bangladeshi program, girls 9-19 years old received education through the Population Services and Training Center on topics such as the advantages of delayed marriage, family planning methods, and maternal-child health.